Overthinking things is a big culprit in choking creativity. Lately I’ve been challenging myself to underthink and focus on quantity in my output.

I’ve made a simple dogmatic setup for myself:

Quickly put the first thing that pops into mind on paper…
Snap a photo with the phone and airdrop it to the computer…
Adjust levels in Photoshop, paste into Illustrator, image trace, quick edit…
Paste back into Photoshop (Smart Obj., new artboard), layout, tweak, fix…
Auto-export .png with File > Generate > Image Assets = Done!

To me, the key is to minimise the distance and amount of work I need to do from “idea” to “finished product”. I’ve set a very low barrier for what constitutes an idea, and a very low barrier for what a finished product is.

Best case is, that—given enough repetitions—I’ll come up with some design that’ll be good, or that I’ll end up with a body of work that as a whole will amount to.. well, something.

Use this mental exercise to warm up and to get a fresh perspective on things. Good for getting unstuck.

What’s the opposite of a fork? Don’t think ‘knife’!

This is how we’re used to think about opposites. Similar but different objects. Or paired adjectives. That leads to nothing new. It’s like night and day — Very familiar:

Big - little
Cheap - expensive
Clean - dirty
Yawn…

Instead, challenge yourself (and a friend) to come up with really-really opposites.

What’s the really-really opposite? What are the defining properties of a fork? What is its purpose? What object can you think of that is the most opposite? Gather your thoughts, and build a convincing argumentation. There is no right or wrong — Only ridiculous opposites and illogical reasoning.

Do you know what the opposite of a blue whale 🐋is? No? It’s a die 🎲
Yes, it is. Here is why:

It’s not alive ✅
It has many eyes 👀
You can play with it ✅
It doesn’t swim well ✅
It’s real easy to throw ✅
You can put it in your pocket ✅
Think of more… 💡

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